Immigrant entrepreneurs in Italy's south: the new drivers of growth in an economically depressed area?

Once a migrant-sending country, Italy has recently become one of the Europe’s destinations of migrant workers. One interesting emerging phenomena is that of immigrant entrepreneurship in the economically under-developed south. Based on current literature and data, this paper argues that the unplanned nature of immigration in Italy, the difficulties of the immigrant population to enter the mainstream, highly regulated labour market, the non-recognition of foreign academic and professional qualifications and the lack of proper policies of settlement and integration may partly explain why higher than expected numbers of immigrants seeking self-employment opportunities, event in areas economically depressed and disadvantaged